Bia Valle’s Flipboard Magazines Marry English Skills and Business News

Inside Flipboard / June 30, 2015

Bia Valle is an English teacher (who also helps us curate the Brazilian edition of The Daily Edition). But her pupils aren’t kids learning grammar; they’re top executives from large, global companies learning English as a second language in São Paulo. This, she says, makes things a bit more difficult.

“I have to stay on top of everything,” she explains, adding that her biggest challenge is learning what each of her client’s businesses is about. “You have to bring content that’s relevant to them.”

That’s one reason Valle uses Flipboard: to stay current. Her magazine, Falando de Negòcios, is a way for her to keep up to date with business issues that affect her students, like market news, product launches, investment updates and more.

“One of the ways I build trust with my customers is by being a resource,” she says. “I bring relevant content to help them build their own repertoire at a deeper level.”

Valle has found that her clients “love it.” The content she sources on Flipboard not only adds to her class’s discussions, it guides them.

“I let them choose what they want to read and talk about,” she says. She begins her lessons with language exercises before moving on to current events. (Her other magazine, English in a Nutshell, contains articles and one-minute drills she prepares to help her clients read and speak English, communicate better and market their products.)

Valle also uses a Twitter account to upload “verb tense contrast exercises”—short drills meant to hone her students’ verbal skills—and her SoundCloud channel offers a collection of self-made recordings for her students. These items are also included in her Flipboard Magazines, which have become the centerpiece of her curriculum.